Star Trek:Odyssey 15:Sands of September
by rylansato
Summary: Commander Zofchak introduces the Vic Fontaine holo program, Counselor Nycz finds out news that drastically changes her life not to mention the crew of the Alexandria encounter another Alexandria that is not from the mirror universe.
1. Vic Fontaine

Star Trek: Odyssey: Sands of September

The Alexandria flew at full impulse after an Intrepid class Imperial starship. They were inside a solar system and the Intrepid class was getting ready to go to warp.

"We're in range, sir." Kell Perim said.

"Fire." Allensworth said.

The phaser array glowed on both ends and moved towards each other and once they met, a phaser beam shot out and struck the enemy ship. Quantum torpedoes flew out of the torpedo launcher and slammed into the Intrepid class.

"Their shields are down." McKenzie reported.

"Continue firing." Allensworth said.

McKenzie entered the commands into her console and the Sovereign class ship fired phasers and photon torpedoes as the mirror starship tried to swivel around to return fire but it didn't have a chance with its shields down. The Intrepid ship suffered multiple hull breaches and ultimately exploded.

"Good job, everybody." Allensworth said. "Lieutenant, set a course for Starbase two three five warp four. I'll be in my ready room alert me when we've arrived. Mister Merriell, you have the bridge."

"Aye, sir." Merriell said as he took the center seat.

Commander Sparhawk limped on a cane across the room to place some things in his bag. His fiancé, April, was still there doing a few things before she had to report back to the Challenger. Jason put the remaining items in his bag and then zipped it up.

"Is there anything else you need from me before I leave?" April asked.

"Nothing that I can think of."

She came over and wrapped her arms around him. "Are you sure?" She asked with a hint of seduction in her voice.

Jason smiled. "Well a few things do come to mind." He said as he kissed her.

Then the sound of someone clearing their throat came from the doorway. The two first officers broke their kiss to see who had intruded on their time. It was Admiral Kreimer .

"Sorry to interrupt but I came by to inform you that the Alexandria will be here within the hour." She said.

"Thank you, Admiral."

"As you were." She said before leaving.

The two of them returned their attention to each other and grasped each other tightly.

After breaking the hug, April looked up at Jason. "I should really get going. The captain might have my hide if I'm any later."

"We can't have that, can we? I'll walk you to the transporter room."

Moments later, the two walked into the transporter room. They stood a few feet from the transporter pad. Jason turned to the transporter chief.

"Would you mind excusing us for a moment?"

"Sure, sir." He said right before walking out of the room.

Once they were alone, they kissed once again. Once it was broken and April stepped onto the transporter pad as Jason walked behind the console. April looked saddened that she was leaving, but she knew she had a duty to perform.

"I love you." She said.

"I love you too."

"Be careful."

"You know me." He said with a grin.

"Energize."

He entered the commands into the console and April was enveloped in the beam of light and whisked away to her ship.

Hoshi and Dustin were in their quarters, lying on the bed. Hoshi lied on her back with her hand on her stomach while Dustin laid on his side with his hand interlocked with hers.

"I've been thinking about names for the twins ever since we found out that we were having girls." Dustin said.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I wanted to keep it close to Japanese as possible because you have my last name. So I was thinking of Kyou and Ryou."

Hoshi thought for a moment and then smiled. "Kyou and Ryou. I like those names. But one question I have, is that which one do we name what?"

"Well, I figure the first one to come out will be Kyou and the other will be Ryou." Dustin said.

"That sounds like good logic." Hoshi said as she leaned up to kiss him. "So Commander Sparhawk is coming back today?"

"Yeah. That's why we're headed to Starbase two three five. I've got the holodeck set up for a party when he comes back."

A short time later, the senior staff stood in the transporter room. The transporter chief pressed a few buttons on his console and before all of them and Commander Jason Sparhawk appeared on the transporter pad.

He smiled as slightly limped off the platform.

"Permission to come aboard, sir?" He asked extending his hand out.

"Permission granted." Allensworth said taking and shaking his first officer's hand.

Sparhawk approached all of the senior officers and received handshakes and hugs.

"It's good to see all of you again." Sparhawk said.

"I've kept your seat warm for you, sir." Merriell said.

"There's a party on the holodeck at seventeen hundred hours." Allensworth said.

"Count me in, sir." Sparhawk said.

The senior officers stood in the holodeck as Vic Fontaine sang his songs to a holographic crowd excluding the ones from Starfleet. He stood on stage singing away and then stepped off stage and approached the senior officers.

"But I'm with you always, I'm with you rain or shine!" He sang as he approached the officers. "Days may be cloudy or sunny. We're in or we're out of the money. I'm with you, baby, I'm with you, rain or shine!"

Once he finished the crowd cheered and he thanked them for his applause. The grey haired singer in a tuxedo smiled as he walked towards the crew of the Alexandria.

He extended his hand to Commander Zofchak first.

"How you doin' Pally?" Fontaine asked.

"I'm doing great. And you?" Zofchak asked as he took the singer's hand.

"Eh, it's showbiz. It's a bit different from Deep Space Nine but being aboard a Sovereign Class ship is exciting too. Who are your friends?"

The group was a bit surprised at Fontaine's knowledge that he was aboard a Sovereign class starship.

"I've seen that look before. You all are surprised that I know that I'm a hologram. It's okay. I got the same reaction when I was introduced to the staff at Deep Space Nine."

As soon as the confusion died down, Zofchak introduced the senior staff to the self aware hologram. He smiled as he looked at Hoshi. "So, I take it you and the Lieutenant Commander here are getting married and expecting twins?"

Hoshi was a bit surprised at Vic's observational skills.

"Yes, that's right. How'd you know?" She said.

"I've been in this business a long time. It's easy to see. What are you naming them?" He asked.

"Kyou and Ryou." She said.

"Lovely names." He said as he moved on to the other officers. He faced Commander Sparhawk. "You had just asked the Misses to tie the knot."

"How'd you know?" Sparhawk asked.

"I've been around the block. I can see these things a mile away." Fontaine said.

"Yeah, I just asked April to marry me and she said yes." Jason said.

"Congratulations, Pally." Fontaine said as he shook the Commander's hand. He moved onto Allesnworth. "And you must be the Captain."

"That's right."

"You remind me of Captain Sisko. Although he and I never really talked a lot but you carry yourself like him."

"I'll take that as a complement." Allensworth said.

Fontaine began to move away. "I'm going to dedicate this song to the senior officers of the USS Alexandria." The band began to play a particular tune as if they knew what he was about to sing. "Out of the tree of life, I just picked me a plum. You came along and everything started to hum. Still it's a real good bet, the best is yet to come."

Counselor Nycz's smile faded as she held her hand to her mouth. Lieutenant Trinn noticed Christine's discomfort.

"Counselor, are you all right?" She asked.

Doctor Plumley came over to her aid. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"I'm not sure. I just got sick all of a sudden."

"Let's get you to sickbay." Plumley said. The two began moving away from the rest of the crowd. "Computer, arch."

The computer acknowledged and an archway appeared out of no where. They approached the doorway and they opened without anyone noticing except the senior staff and Vic Fontaine. Fontaine noticed the counselor and the doctor leaving but kept the show going for the rest of the guests.

In sickbay, Counselor Nycz sat on a biobed as Doctor Plumley scanned her with a tricorder.

"Now I understand why, you've been feeling sick." Plumley said. "You're pregnant."


	2. All Kinds of Unexpected News

Captain Allensworth walked into his ready room after getting a message from the bridge telling him that he had a priority one message from Earth. It was unusual for him to get messages from Earth but he welcomed them anyway. It was a good change from the standard messages by Admiral Dowler or Admiral Nechayev about the latest incursions into Federation space made by the Terran Empire.

He sat down into his chair and pressed the main button on the control pad.

"Authorization Allensworth two-two-gamma-delta."

A worded message appeared on the screen and the grin he somewhat had on his face completely disappeared. It seemed the message went from bad to worse. He tapped his comm. badge.

"Lieutenant McCabe, set a course for Earth. Maximum warp."

"Aye, sir." She replied.

"Plumley to Allensworth."

"What is it, Doctor?" He said as he rubbed his eyes.

"I need you to come down to sickbay."

"For what reason." Allensworth said almost letting an annoyed tone slip his mouth.

"It'd be better if you came down her instead of me saying it over the intercom."

"I'm on my way."

Captain Allensworth entered sickbay to find Counselor Nycz still on the biobed. Plumley came out of her office entering commands into a tricorder.

"You sounded urgent on the intercom." Allensworth said.

"That's because it is." She said walking towards Christine. "We've got a bit of a situation on our hands."

Plumley paused as she looked to Counselor Nycz and then looked to the captain.

"Well don't keep it to yourself, Doctor."

Christine spoke up before Plumley could say anything. "I'm pregnant, sir."

Allensworth was a bit taken back by the statement. "Oh, well congratulations." Christine gave him a look that told him otherwise. "Okay so no congratulations then." He said as he felt a bit embarrassed saying the wrong thing. "Who's the father?"

"I'm not sure, sir."

Allensworth was a bit surprised by the comment. He knew that the Counselor has had multiple intimate relationships, nothing promiscuous, but it was still surprising for her not to be sure who the father is of her unborn child.

Plumley looked at the captain. "The time of conception is around the time she was held captive by the mirror universe. I just ran a few tests on her, including a prenatal scan. We should know shortly who the father is."

"What happened over there, Counselor?" Allensworth asked.

Christine hadn't told anyone what exactly happened while she was held prisoner for a month, not even Commander Zofchak. All she told him how horrible it was over there. She paused before talking about her experiences.

"I went through multiple torture techniques. They threw me into the agony booth, then they placed multiple agonizers on different spots on my body and then hung me up by my arms and did it to me again. I lost count of how many different ways they tortured me. I've had my arms broken, healed then broken again. They did that six different times. I've had my jaw broken at least twice. They always had a doctor there to heal me so they could do it again." She paused and wiped away the tears that begun to form. "Then, they raped me. It wasn't just one, there were multiple of them."

Allensworth put a comforting hand on her shoulder as she cried.

A beeping behind Doctor Plumley alerted her that the machine demanded her attention. She turned and entered a few commands into the console.

"Well, we have the DNA sequence of the father. Computer, run a comparative analysis on the DNA sequence."

A few really long seconds passed as the computer worked its magic on the sequence. Another set of beeping signaled it was finished.

"Computer, who does the DNA sequence belong to?" Plumley asked.

"The DNA sequence belongs to Commander Alex Merriell."

The three senior officers looked at each other with wide eyes.

"Makes sense." Counselor Nycz said. "He's the one who did it to me the most. Next time I see him, I'll kill him."

"Just remember, Counselor, that our Alex is not the one who did that to you." Allensworth warned.

"I know, sir. One question that I have is that, should I tell our Merriell or not?"

Allensworth and Plumley looked at each other, obviously not knowing the answer to that question.

"I think that for you to decide. One thing I do know is that; don't expect him to help take care of the child even though it his in a sense, it wouldn't be fair to him. If he wants to take care of the child then that is up to him."

The counselor nodded. At that moment, the intercom kicked on.

"McKenzie to Allensworth."

Allensworth tapped his combadge. "Go ahead, Lieutenant."

"Sir, we have dropped out of warp. We can't seem to pinpoint the exact cause but sensors have picked up another ship eighty thousand kilometers off the starboard bow. It appears to be out of temporal alignment. You might want to come and see this."

"On my way, Lieutenant." He said. He then turned to Plumley and Nycz. "I'll be on the bridge if you need me."

They both nodded as he turned and left.

Allensworth walked onto the bridge. "Report."

"Sir, sensors are detecting trace amounts of chronoton particles and they are dramatically increasing." McKenzie said.

Alarms started to go off in Jermaine's head. Something was not right. "Source?"

"Unknown, sir. They're all collected about eighty thousand kilometers off the starboard bow."

"The particles are creating a temporal vortex." Kell Perim said. Then more beeping came from Ops. "Sir, sensors are picking up a ship emerging from the collection of chronoton particles."

"On screen."

A white vortex appeared on the screen. Allensworth watched as the faint outline of a second ship started to become more apparent. At first, the sight didn't exactly register in the captain's mind; it was just another ship. Its hull was blackened by numerous scorch marks, and almost all of its lights were dim. Allensworth blinked, coercing his eyes to focus on the emerging ship.

"Definitely Federation Starship." McKenzie said. "It's a Sovereign class."

"Is it the Enterprise?" Allensworth asked turning to McKenzie.

"Reading registry now." McKenzie replied. "NCC-two five four seven. USS Alexandria."

Allensworth turned his gaze back towards the view screen.


	3. The Other Alexandria

The rest of the senior officers walked on to the bridge took their stations. Even Doctor Plumley and Counselor Nycz had walked on to the bridge. Commander Sparhawk was not yet fit for duty so Commander Merriell was still acting first officer. Allensworth was standing between Ops and Navigation.

"Lifesigns?" Allensworth asked.

"I'm reading one." Kell Perim said.

Allensworth sighed. "Alex, I would like you to begin an investigation. I'll be in my ready room."

Allensworth began to walk towards the ready room doors.

"Sir? I thought that..."

"JUST DO IT!" Allensworth snapped as he entered his ready room. Merriell was a bit taken back by the captain's tone. Counselor Nycz watched with a concerned look as the captain disappeared behind the doors of his ready room.

A thin blanket of smoke hung in the cold, clammy air, eerily illuminated by the faint red hue of the flashing alert lights. Fiery embers still glowed hot on many of the workstations, and were littered with dust, chunks of debris and dead bodies.

They were dead; there was no doubt in Amanda Plumley's mind about it. Michelle Trinn was hunched over the helm in a pool of blood, tainted black in places by the charred station. Most of her face was scorched black, and her left arm was gone entirely, still oozing blood.

One the floor behind the Trill was Alex Merriell, also dead; his head was turned nearly ninety degrees, and was barely attached to the rest of his body. Plumley compressed her lips and looked to the living Merriell, who stood in silence over his dead self.

Her gaze slowly meandered from the floor the Captain's chair, where Jermaine Allensworth was still seated. His face was bruised and bloodied, and his right arm was missing, apparently ripped right out of the socket. Plumley gulped, and turned back to Merriell. "What the hell happened here?"

"Doctor, I very much wish I could answer that."

A moment later, McKenzie and Zofchak joined Plumley and Merriell in front of the command chair. McKenzie saw that her counterpart was slumped over the tactical station, burnt so badly that it was practically reduced to ashes.

"This ship is damaged beyond repair." Zofchak said.

"Do we have any idea how this happened?" Merriell asked.

"None." McKenzie said.

Zofchak sat down in the first officer's chair and used the tricorder's power cells to activate the terminal next to the chair. Zofchak was summarily granted limited computer access; he tapped away at the controls for a moment, and then came back with some information. "Most of these files are fragmented. I can't access them here."

Obviously disappointed, Merriell expelled a long sigh. "Save them to your tricorder. We will have to analyze them when we get back to the ship."

"Do you have access to internal sensors?" Plumley asked.

McKenzie gained access to the Ops station by carefully moving around the body of Kell Perim. "Barely." She said. "The ship is running on reserve power, and it is rapidly failing."

"Can you tell where the lifeform is?" She asked.

As McKenzie went to work on the sensors, Plumley closed her eyes to the atrocities around her and waited for a response, the entire time wondering what had happened…or what was going to happen if they couldn't solve this mystery. Plumley didn't really want to imagine that reality, not that she had to, since it was staring her in the face.

The computer beeped, and McKenzie looked up from Ops. "It's on deck eleven, section three."

Immediately, the first officer slapped his communicator. "Merriell to Plumley. Beam us to deck eleven, section three."

"Acknowledged." The transporter chief said.

Seconds later, the away team materialized in the dark, murky corridors of deck eleven. There were no emergency lights or workstations to provide light, so the entire deck was wrapped in a blanket of pure darkness. Plumley activated her wrist light, revealing the hollowed out remains of the deck in front of them.

Everything was scorched black; most of the walls were reduced to ash and slowly crumpling to the soot-laden floor. If there was still somebody alive here, they were undoubtedly in pretty bad shape. Plumley wasted no time in pulling out her tricorder to seek out their sole survivor.

Within moments, the tricorder started beeping as it located the lifeform. Plumley glanced down at the display, which indicated the survivor was about ten meters ahead of them. She started walking, the soot and debris crunching under her boots with each step.

"It looks like we're headed to deflector control." Zofchak noted as they drew nearer to the life sign.

They walked down a few additional blackened corridors before coming up to deflector control. Both Merriell and Zofchak flashed their lights in the general direction, revealing two bodies, both of which were clearly dead. Plumley recognized them as Lieutenant Commander Megan Czambel and Ensign Jamie Kirby, or what was left of them. Both were missing limbs and appeared to have been severly bludgeoned. Plumley gulped, and shook her head indicating for the others to continue moving their lights.

They followed and moments later, the motionless body of Jason Sparhawk stood starkly amidst the beams of light. His jaw dropped slightly, his eyes widened, and a half second later, he fell to the deck. Instinctively, Plumley rushed to his side with her tricorder in hand, running the instrument over his body.

"He's in a state of hypertensive shock. We need to get him back to the ship at once."

She moved to tap her communicator but Plumley was cut off by Lieutenant McKenzie.

"He's not the lifesign we were looking for."

Plumley's jaw dropped. "What?"

He shined his own light down the corridor a few meters behind Sparhawk. Slumped on the floor, but clearly alive, was Lieutenant Commander Hoshi Sato. Quickly, Plumley rushed to her side and scanned her. "She's the same as the Commander. We need to get them both back to the ship."

"Those two survived…there still may be others." Merriell said after a moment.

"Unfortunately, the high levels of chronoton radiation interferes with our sensors. We can't pinpoint life signs from the Alexandria." McKenzie said.

"We'd have to a deck by deck search of this Alexandria." Zofchak said. "And that could take days we don't have."

Merriell sighed. He didn't like the idea of leaving people to die, but then again, back on their Alexandria, everyone was alive and well; if they were successful in saving themselves, saving the dead on this damaged Alexandria would be pointless. "Those two will have to be sufficient." He decided before tapping his communicator. "Merriell to Alexandria, six to beam up."

Jermaine Allensworth stood in his ready room staring out the window to the darkened version of his ship. There were multiple things on his mind. The terminal illness he had acquired was slowly eating away at him. Each and every day, a part of Allensworth died, and there was nothing he could do about it. He tried to ignore it, but the thoughts were always there, lingering in the back of his mind. For Jermaine, the end was near no matter what.

Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by a chime at his door.

"Come in." He said.

The doors separated to show Counselor Nycz standing there.

"Counselor, what can I do for you?"

"Well, I was hoping I could ask that question. I noticed you were a bit aggravated on the bridge. I was just wondering if everything was okay."

"Yeah everything is fine."

Christine nodded unconvinced. She looked around the room hoping to see something that could give her something to talk about and maybe get the captain to talk about what is bothering him. Then she remembered that they were taken out of warp on their way back to Earth.

"Captain, why were we on our way back to Earth?"

The captain sighed knowing that the Counselor was notorious for getting answers out of people and he was no different even if he was the captain.

"The Terran Empire attacked Earth." He said.

"How bad is the damage?" The Counselor asked.

"The southeastern seaboard of the North American continent was almost completely destroyed. The second and third fleets were able to fight off the Empire but by then the damage was done." Christine heard Allensworth's voice slightly weaken. "Most of the crew knows but they are doing what they can to put it aside to do their jobs until we can handle that situation when we get to it. To be honest, they are handling it better than me." He said as he turned back to the window.

"Captain, what happened?" She asked as she approached him.

"Most of my family is from New Orleans. The entire state of Louisiana was destroyed. My father moved up to Maine after my mother's death. So it's just him and I."

Suddenly, the intercom kicked on. "Plumley to Allensworth."

"Go ahead, Doctor."

"I would like you to report to sickbay."

"On my way."

The captain entered sickbay and walked up to Alex merriell who stood near the center biobed in the center of sickbay, quietly observing Amanda Plumley working on the two new patients.

"It would seem that we are in quite a catastrophe."

"Not only us." Allensworth said.

"Oh?" Merriell said with a curious face.

"While you were gone, four more Federation starships emerged from the chronometric distortion. They were all in worse shape than the Alexandria. We've got more and more junk and debris emerging with each passing minute. It would seem that the Terran Empire will conquer us some time in the future."

The curious look on Merriell's face slowly faded into something that was more indicative of concern. "Commander Zofchak is going over each and every piece of data we located on the other Alexandria. Hopefully, we will have some answers soon."

"Folding his arms across his chest, Allensworth sighed. "Hopefully, I would feel a hell of a lot better if I knew when this was going to happen. I mean, I'm going to be afraid someone's going to come and yank my arm out every time I sit down in my chair."

"I could sit there if you'd like, sir." Merriell said with a slight grin.

The captain raised a hand to halt any further discussion. "Why don't we not talk about how we died or going to die or…this is going to make me go insane."

Plumley approached both of them causing Allensworth to turn his gaze upon the chief medical officer. "Amanda, what's the situation?"

She slowly turned her gaze to the two occupied biobeds. They appear to be in hypertensive shock, but they're close to being comatose. They haven't responded to any treatment we've tried."

"It's always something with this crew. It's never easy. Always some damned adventure." Allensworth said.

When he set out to examine the data collected on the other Alexandria, Dustin Zofchak had the distinct impression that the task would be relatively simple. Though the data was fragmented, the computer was generally good at sifting through the remaining data and putting it together.

However, none of the recursive algorithms in the Alexandria's database seemed to be able to construct more than a few sentences out of it. Half of if it was nonsensical. Perseverance, however, would do Zofchak little good with his other problem called interference. Ever since he sat down with the data, it seemed that a continuous line of other engineers stood at the door of his office with a continuous line of questions. This time it was Lieutenant Commander Hilary Kazarick, which told him that there was something actually important going on.

"Yes, Hilary?" He asked.

She tucked a lock of her brown hair behind her ear as she spoke. "We have a problem. I've discovered a microfracture in the warp core and it appears to be expanding."

"How the hell did that happen?"

He wasn't expecting an answer from Kazarick, which was a good think, because she certainly was not inclined to provide one. Instead, she stood wincing in pain as she rubbed her temples.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. It's just a headache that I've had all day. Do you want me to repair the microfracture?"

"Yeah. I'll be here if you need me."

The moment Captain Allensworth and Commander Merriell walked onto the bridge, Lieutenant Trinn immediately felt a wave of relief over her body, not that she disliked Commander Sato or distrusted her but with her pregnancy, Hoshi was a bit moody and sometimes feral. It simply felt reassuring to have Allensworth back on the bridge.

"Report." Allensworth said.

"Two more ships and a lot more debris came through the distortion."

"Do you think we should try collapsing it?" Sato asked.

The thought had occurred to Trinn as well. Not that closing the rift would solve their problems, but it would prevent anything evil from coming through without warning, not to mention keep the general vicinity clear of a massive debris field bigger than Wolf 359. However, Allensworth was not inclined to agree.

"We need all the clues we can get, Hoshi. Something of consequence as to stroll through there eventually."

Ironically, it was at that moment when Trinn saw the sensors light up with activity. "Bloody hell. I am detecting something on consequence, sir." She said.

Allensworth walked over to the Lieutenant. "What is it?"

"Sensors have picked up a new vessel that is not of Federation design. They are having difficulty locking onto it because of the…" Her voice trailed off.

"What is it, Lieutenant?" The captain demanded.

"It reads that the vessel is cubed shaped."

"Red alert. All hands battle stations." Allensworth said.


	4. Changes to the Borg

"Sir, the Borg ship seems to be derelict. I'm not picking up any power readings or any signs of the electromagnetic field." Perim said from Ops.

Allensworth raised an eyebrow as he stood in between Ops and Navigation.

"Could the cube also have been crippled by the Federation fleet?" He asked.

"It's possible, sir."

Allensworth turned around to McKenzie at tactical. "Lieutenant, I want you to lead an away team to the cube. We'll keep a constant transporter lock on you at all times to pull you out if something arises."

"Aye, sir." She tapped her communicator as she walked towards the turbolift. "Shockey, Cartano, Gleason, report to Transporter room three."

The four security officers stood in the transporter room making their last checks on their equipment before stepping onto the platform. McKenzie tapped her communicator.

"We're ready to beam over to the ship, Captain." McKenzie said.

"Remember, they won't attack you unless they consider you a threat." Allensworth replied.

"It seems that their life support is still functional." The transporter chief said.

"Energize." McKenzie said.

The team materialized in the middle of a corridor intersection. They pulled their phasers out of their holsters. McKenzie and Gleason held hand phasers with tricorders while Cartano and Shockey were armed with phaser rifles. The four of the crept through the dark, mysterious and frightening corridors of the Borg ship. McKenzie noticed she had started breathing heavily. She was full of trepidation and was slightly shaking. She had to control herself if she was going to successfully lead this team through the ship. She had read about the Borg and knew a lot about them but this was the first time she had been aboard a Borg cube. She ran her tricorder up and down in front of her, scanning the walls, drones in their alcoves, anything that was close to her.

McKenzie tapped her communicator. "McKenzie to Alexandria. This ship doesn't look too damaged. In fact, it…"

McKenzie was cut off by a loud scream. She looked back to see a bloody appendage sticking out of Shockey's chest. A Borg drone had come out of its alcove and snuck up behind them and attacked Shockey. The drone pulled its arm out by slicing through the officer's side. Shockey was dead before he hit the floor. McKenzie fired her phaser downing the drone. More drones activated with a sudden jerk and stepped out of their alcoves.

_Attack when we're a threat my ass._ McKenzie thought as she fired and slammed her hand against her communicator.

"Alexandria, they attack on sight." McKenzie said. "I repeat, they attack on sight."

Allensworth stood up from his command chair. "Transporter room, get them out of there."

"Aye, sir." The transporter chief said.

The three officers fired at the drones as they marched towards them. The first few fell as the beams hit them but the others kept coming as the beams were absorbed into their own personal shields.

"They've adapted." Gleason said

Even though the Borg had adapted, the three of them continued to fire as they beamed out of the Borg ship. They disappeared just as the drones reached them.

"Sir, the Borg ship is powering up." Perim said.

"Get us out of here. Best possible speed." Allensworth replied.

The Alexandria swiveled around and sped away at full impulse.

"This cube is in pursuit." Perim reported. "They're closing fast.

Allensworth's grasp on his chair tightened. "This is not good." He muttered to himself, intently watching the cube shaped vessel on the viewscreen. Instinct told him to fight; better judgment told him to run, and in this case Jermaine was inclined to agree. "Evasive maneuvers."

The stars on the viewscreen quickly veered to starboard, then to port as a surge of green energy charged across the viewscreen. He saw a brief flash of green light before the deck plates started to vibrate beneath his feet. The Borg was not about to give up.

"Shields down to ninety percent." James reported.

The cube fired again, this time rattling more than the deck plates. Allensworth was thrown around quite a bit in the chaos that followed, but the death grip he had on his chair kept him from rolling to the ground.

"Maintain course." He called out.

The entire ship jolted with a force Allensworth had never experienced in his life. Despite his grip he had on his chair, Allensworth was practically ejected from his seat and thrown to the floor. His jaw was the first thing to hit the hard deck plating, followed closely by the palms of his hands and the rest of his body.

"Shields down to forty-eight percent." Perim said.

"Transphasic torpedoes." Allensworth ordered from the floor. At this point, he didn't really care if their nemesis had probably adapted but he just wanted to show some teeth. "Full spread. Fire.!"

Slowly, he picked himself up from the ground and turned his attention to the viewscreen, where a string of blazing multicolored torpedoes hurtled toward the Borg cube. They crashed into the cube with incredible force destroying the cube.

As he started back for his chair, Allensworth suddenly felt a trickle running down the front of his neck. He reached for it, revealing blood when he pulled it away.

"Direct hit." Perim said.

Allensworth wiped the blood from his wounds, and wearily returned to his chair. He let out a few breaths and gathered himself before standing up. He began walking towards the observation lounge.

"I want all senior officers to report to the observation lounge." He said before tapping his communicator. "Lieutenant McKenzie, report to the observation lounge."

"Aye, sir."

He was about to walk through doors leading to the observation lounge when Sato spoke up.

"Sir, we just received message from the Borg cube before it blew apart." Hoshi said.

"What did it say?" Allensworth asked.

Hoshi pressed a few buttons on her console and allowed the message to be played on the speakers on the bridge. The message was spoken in the many creepy and deadly voices of the Borg.

"We are the Borg. Your biological and technological distinctiveness have become irrelevant. You will be annihilated. Resistance is futile…but welcome."


	5. Between a Drone and a Forcefield

The senior officers sat around the conference table. Allensworth was the only one not sitting. In fact, he was pacing back and forth around the end of the table.

"So, the Borg now attack on sight?" He asked.

"Yes, sir." McKenzie said.

"That doesn't consist with their previous acts." Allensworth said.

"Usually, when the Enterprise encountered the Borg, the Borg never attacked unless they viewed us as a threat. They never attacked on sight." Dustin said.

"When we arrived over there, we did nothing except scan the area. The Borg was still in their alcoves and when our back was turned that's when they attacked." McKenzie said.

"I've uncovered some disturbing data from the other Alexandria." Zofchak said pressing a few buttons on the padd in front of him. He studied it for a moment longer, before going on. "At the time of the Alexandria's destruction, the Borg will have destroyed two thousand four hundred forty-seven starships and thirty-three planets, including Earth. More than two hundred billion people are killed."

"Why would there be a sudden attack from the Borg?" Merriell asked.

"Ever since the Borg became aware of the Federation at System J two five," Allensworth said. "They've made multiple attempts to assimilate us but we have been the only species other than Species 8472 to resist them. I think they've become tired of repeat attempts so they want to destroy us."

Allensworth's words lingered in the air.

"Have the attacks been limited to Federation targets?" Sato asked.

Zofchak shook his head indecisively. "It looks that way, but I've only accessed a fraction of the data I downloaded from the Alexandria. We could have another two hundred billion dead before this is over with."

At that, Allensworth slightly cringed. The thought of so many dead was such a haunting prospect, it sent a chill down his spine. "Dustin," He said softly, trepidation creeping into his voice. "Do you have any idea when this is going to happen?"

To the captain's chagrin, the look on Zofchak's face remained blank. "No, I haven't been able to access that data yet."

"So we could be attacked at any moment." Merriell said. "I suggest we maintain yellow alert until we can be more certain."

"Agreed." Allensworth said. "I'll contact Starfleet Command and alert them of the situation. Maybe with their assistance, we'll be able to shed some light on this mystery."

It was at that moment, Dustin's gaze locked briefly with that of Hoshi Sato. It was not an unusual event, since they were romantically involved, but unlike previous interludes, Hoshi's face was not one filled with warmth or compassion. "I have an idea." She said. "Why don't we use my counterpart as some sort of indicator to show us when this disaster is going to happen. We could just see how far along my pregnancy is…"

"Actually," Plumley said. "Your counterpart is not pregnant. Never was."

"How can that be?" Hoshi said. "If I was never pregnant that would put us just before the war with the mirror universe. I hadn't been on the ship long since coming from the twenty-second century to the twenty-fourth."

"My bet is that we can find more answers over there. We'll return to the coordinates of the other Alexandria and see what we can turn up. Dismissed."

At that, the senior staff got up out of their chairs and headed for the bridge.

The Alexandria arrived at the coordinates where they last left the derelict Sovereign class. The debris field had grown since the ship had been there last. Allensworth could see pieces of countless starships, Galaxy class, Intrepid class, Steamrunner class, Norway class. Some chunks of debris were charred beyond recognition, while others were too small to be directly associated with any one ship. The Borg had certainly been thorough with their destruction.

"Commander Merriell, I want you to lead an away team over to the Alexandria and see if you can get any more answers."

"Aye, sir." Merriell said getting up and heading to the turbolift. He pointed to McKenzie and Zofchak to join him.

Moments later, the three bridge officers and one security officer materialized on deck sixteen of the other Alexandria. The deck was black in every way one could imagine. It was dark, and when Merriell shined his light on the walls, they were dark, scorched a rough shade of obsidian by the raging inferno that must have plagued the deck. The flooring was covered in ash and the ceiling, virtually nonexistent. Merriell could see up to deck fifteen, which looked just like sixteen.

Their boots crunched under the debris as he walked the short distance to the Alexandria's sickbay. The doors had been either stuck inside the wall or completely destroyed. Sickbay itself seemed to have faired the situation far better than the majority of deck sixteen for it was still relatively intact. Chunks of debris still littered the floor, and the smoky, metallic smell that had filled the air in the corridor was still present, but for the most part sickbay was intact. The same could not be said for the people.

Doctor Plumley was the first person Merriell saw. Her right leg was missing and her blue lab coat was stained red in most places. Beside Plumley was the head of some other poor crewmember that Merriell recognized as Nurse Tabar.

The four of them started their search for answers in sickbay. A few moments later, a beeping filled the deathly silent room. It was coming from Zofchak's tricorder.

"What is it, Dustin?" Merriell asked.

"I'm picking up something approaching sickbay. It's a Borg drone."

"Damn." Merriell said setting his hand phaser to its highest setting and walked out of sickbay with the other three in tow.

Adrenaline flowed rampantly through their veins. They had no idea where exactly this drone was. It had evaded their ship's sensors and their other scans until now. They turned a corner and headed down another corridor. They stopped dead in their tracks. In front of them was a Borg drone.

Instinctively, Merriell fired his phaser but the vivid orange beam was absorbed into the Borg's personal shielding. The drone walked as if nothing had happened.

"It has already adapted." He said. "Retreat."

The four of them sprinted down the destroyed corridors from the drone that almost seemed to be running too. Drones usually didn't run but these Borg were different. Suddenly, the group stopped. It wasn't because they wanted to or because they were out of breath, and they certainly had not lost the drone. They stopped because the corridor before them had come to an abrupt end. It wasn't blocked by debris or anything like that, it was just gone. The only thing between them and the vastness of space was a barely functional forcefield that was constantly zapping under the strain of power failure.

The breach was huge, running the length of most of the deck. To their left was nothing but stars. To their right was a small corridor that had formed between a scorched wall and the forcefield; at the end of it was a set of turbolift doors.

Merriell pointed at them. "Get in." He said drawing his phaser.

The three of them ran through the claustrophobic corridor to the turbolift. As Commander Merriell rushed down the small corridor, the drone was less than five meters away. Merriell pressed buttons on his phaser as he ran. Zofchak, at first, had no idea what the Commander was doing, but has he worked on the phaser's limited controls, it began to bleep, and as the cacophony became more of a continuous shrill, Zofchak knew exactly what was going on. Merriell was overloading the phaser.

The drone was within a few meters almost on top of them. Merriell hefted his phaser and tossed it out into the corridor. "Close the doors!" He ordered.

McKenzie quickly ripped the hatch off the manual controls and less than three seconds later, the doors sealed themselves. Seconds later, a massive explosion rocked the ship, Commander Merriell's phaser had finally overloaded. The resulting explosion neutralized the forcefield and not only did it blow the majority of the deck into the vacuum of space, the drone was included. The four of them slightly relaxed.

A microfracture in the warp core was a serious problem. Had Hilary Kazarick not discovered it so swiftly, there was the distinct possibility that time would have exacerbated the problem, causing an untimely warp core breach. Of course, by that time, it would have been too late to fix the error, as the ship would be thoroughly decimated.

But Kazarick had stumbled upon the problem well in advance of such a cataclysm. The microfracture was easily repaired, and as Hilary Kazarick placed the finishing touches on her work, the delicate human was left with one question lingering in the back of her mind: How did the fracture form in the first place?

She stood behind the warp core, arms folded, and stared at her patchwork while she pondered the question. She knew the warp core like the back of her hand; it had endured a considerable amount of stress in recent months, but nothing so traumatic as to warrant a microfracture. It was also in the realm of possibility that it had sustained damage amidst one of the many battles the Alexandria had participated in thus far in the Mirror War; the theory quickly fell as several weeks had passed since their last big engagement and Kazarick had inspected the warp core several times since then, the results showing no signs of damage.

Certainly, Kazarick had overlooked something, but her mind was slowly turning to clay, generating nothing more than mindless prattle. To make matters worse, the splitting headache that had been plaguing her all day was starting to take its toll, almost to the point where coherent thought was impossible. Still, Kazarick pressed on, knowing that like all headaches, this one would fade with time.

Slowly, Kazarick focused on her work, forcing the pain into the back of her mind as she pulled out her tricorder to scan the warp core for some sort of data that would shed some light on her predicament. Not surprisingly, the tricorder indicated the matter antimatter reaction was taking place inside the cylindrical chamber, and little else. It was worth a try, she conceded before putting the tricorder away.

However, the second her arm began to move, the tricorder began to do a series of faint beeps before returning to its inactive state. Kazarick quickly pulled up the data she had recorded, only to find that it was little more than a sensor ghost, a false reading. She sighed, and continued to put the tricorder on her belt, but the close she came to completing the action, the more she thought about the ghost.

Tricorders functioned under the most extreme conditions, and almost always provided accurate data. Chances were, this sensor ghost was indeed something after all. And so, Kazarick brought the tricorder back from her belt and set it to a more sensitive frequency.

She turned it on the warp core, and only moments later, was relieved she had done so. The warp core was littered with stray chronoton particles. Particles that, much like the microfracture, had no place near the warp core.

_No wonder we were pulled out of warp._

She came to the conclusion that the two were somehow related, but she got no further than thinking of that hypothesis. Moments later, the pain in her head seemed to explode and Hilary Kazarick was on the floor, unconscious.


	6. The Culprit

Jermaine Allensworth had been contemplating his future when the call from Doctor Plumley came. The captain found himself nearly fixated on his ultimate fate and how it would take him away from his crew, his surrogate family at some point in the future.

But to his relief, Doctor Plumley's call shattered that particular train of thought, prompting Allensworth to focus on the more pressing matters at hand. According to the doctor, Hilary Kazarick had an accident in Engineering while repairing the microfracture in the warp core. Give Plumley's tone, the injuries were not serious, in fact, they hardly seemed to warrant the captain's attention. But as he replayed the doctor's words in his mind, Jermaine slowly came to the realization that each and every word Plumley had uttered was literally swimming in ruse. Hilary Kazarick was merely an excuse to get Jermaine into sickbay; there was something more the doctor wished to talk about.

Allensworth slowly stepped past the parting doors of sickbay to see Amanda Plumley presiding over Kazarick on a biobed near the back of sickbay. Hearing the hiss of the doors, Plumley looked up and saw the captain. She approached him with a hurried step.

"How's Hilary?" Jermaine asked as Plumley walked up to him.

She looked back at the Lieutenant Commander as she considered the question. It wasn't that hard of a question but Plumley's hesitation made it seem that way. She walked back to the biobed with a beckoning finger. Allensworth walked over and stood next to the chief medical officer.

"She's fine but, I've been noticing some disturbing trends. Have you had any aches or pains lately? Something that you hadn't noticed before a few weeks ago?"

"No." He said immediately. With his disease, Jermaine had been keeping a close eye on his physical condition. Aside from a few headaches related to his disease, Allensworth had experienced almost nothing.

"Actually, now that I think about it I have experienced an ache."

At the time he had experienced it, Allensworth attributed his aching shoulder to the workout he had on the holodeck a few days ago. After it faded, he hadn't given it a second thought, but now that he had, Allensworth realized that the pain had indeed spiked up on several occasions over the past few hours. It was nothing calamitous, but it was certainly noticeable.

Plumley provided Allensworth with an inscrutable nod, thinned her lips, and without any hesitation, pointed to Allensworth's right shoulder. "That's where you're hurting, isn't it?"

"How did you…"

Swiftly, Plumley turned her attention back to the placid Human female before them. "According to Commander Gomez, Hilary had been complaining of a headache earlier in the day, and now she's here because of it. When I was on the other Alexandria with the away team, we came upon numerous corpses, Kazarick's included. From what I could tell, she was killed after experiencing blunt force trauma to the head."

Allensworth wasn't following. Plumley's jumping around in this conversation was keeping the captain rather confused. He tried not to show his state of confusion, and simply nodded, hoping the doctor would eventually place a bridge between all the gaps in her story, which she summarily did.

"I happened to see your corpse too. Your arm was ripped off in the same spot your shoulder is aching now." She said bluntly.

Allensworth's eyes widened. "What are you getting at?"

Plumley expelled a weary sigh. "This attack you're worried about isn't going to happen." She whispered.

Though she didn't show it, Doctor Plumley was most likely getting a kick out of the dumbfounded look that Allensworth was certain he wore on his face, because her last statement floored him. Thousands of starships destroyed, billions of people dead, Borg cubes on the warpath throughout the quadrant, and Amanda Plumley had the audacity to say that the attack wasn't going to happen?

"Why not?" He asked.

Folding her arms, she took one step closer to Allensworth and stared him in the eye. "We're not going to get attacked because the battle has already happened. The proof is right over there."

Jermaine Allensworth froze. His mind ceased to function, and his entire body went numb. As far as he was concerned, the entire concept was preposterous. How could Plumley even dare to say such a thing? Clearly the Alexandria was intact; the Borg had destroyed a single planet and the alleged billions that lost their lives were alive and well.

Still, Plumley seemed convinced that she spoke the truth. After all, she did provide evidence to support the claim. Allensworth simply hadn't been able to register the notion in his mind to provide a response.

The doctor moved on, her path taking her through the lab, directly into the adjacent morgue. She stopped in front of the first stasis chamber and tapped at the neighboring control panel to deactivate the stasis fields and open the chamber.

Allensworth followed the chief medical officer, attempting to compose himself along the way. He saw a pale body in the stasis chamber. It was Hoshi Sato.

"She's our proof?"

"Yes, because like I said in the observation lounge, she's not pregnant. Never has been. This Hoshi Sato is not from the present or future so she must be from the past. This attack you're all worried about is over and done with."

"So we have already been slaughtered in that massacre and now somebody is trying to cover it up."

"How?" Plumley asked.

"Obviously, somebody went back and changed the past to ensure this future was the one we experienced. I'm grateful they did that but it is a direct violation of the Temporal Prime Directive."

"Now, wait a minute. If they went back and changed the past, why are all of these clues popping up now?"

"The chronometric distortion." Allensworth suggested.

"But if it didn't happen in the first place, then…forget it. I don't really give a damn about temporal mechanics because I hate temporal mechanics. I'm not complaining that we're alive. So what do we do now?"

Almost immediately, Allensworth's gaze wandered across the sickbay over to the biobeds where Hilary Kazarick lay. On the beds next to him was Hoshi Sato and Jason Sparhawk, the sole survivors of the incident. They had all the answers Allensworth needed. He turned his gaze back to Plumley. "We need to wake them up. Do what needs to be done. I'll be in the bridge if you need anything."

Hoshi Sato stared blankly at her double, who lay quietly on the biobed before her. Occasionally, Plumley would administer a dose of some stimulant to wake the two survivors of the Borg massacre. Unfortunately, none of the treatments worked, and both Sato and Sparhawk remained motionless on their respective biobeds.

"It's a good thing we don't have to worry about time running out." Plumley said coming up to administer another hypospray.

Plumley pressed a few buttons on the hypospray and pressed it against the unconscious Sato. The hypospray produced a faint hissing sound as it sent its product into the body. Plumley removed the hypospray and repeated the procedure on Sparhawk.

"It's not working." Plumley said. "I'm going to try something else."

"Two more cubes are on long range sensors." Perim said from the Ops station. "More are emerging."

Merriell, McKenzie and Zofchak returned to the bridge after their away mission.

"Damn." Allensworth said turning to the newly arrived officers. "Find anything?"

Merriell shook his head. "Other than a blood thirst drone, nothing."

"We need to collapse the chronometric distortion. Any ideas?" Allensworth asked.

"I might have an idea." Zofchak said. "Why not use a broad spectrum warp field. That should collapse the distortion but we need to bring the ship within a hundred thousand kilometers."

"That might work." Merriell agreed. "But there are several cubes in the vicinity that would severely hinder our efforts."

The idea of bringing the ship closer to the distortion and closer to those cubes was not one that Allensworth liked but he trusted his chief engineer and was going to go through with this plan. "Well, we'll just have to out do them. How long would it take to reach the distortion at full impulse?"

"Three hours nineteen minutes." Michelle Trinn said.

"Trinn, set a course. Hit it."

The Trill pressed a few buttons on her console and the Alexandria flew towards the distortion. Suddenly, the intercom kicked on.

"Sickbay to Bridge." Plumley said.

"Go ahead, Doctor."

"Could you come down to sickbay. They're awake."

"I'm on my way." Allensworth said getting up. "Merriell you have the bridge."

The captain walked into sickbay to see the counterparts of his communications officer and first officer sitting up right on the edge of their biobeds.

"How much do you remember?" Allensworth asked getting straight to the point.

It was clearly a touchy subject, for the look on Hoshi's face immediately faded into something more dreary. "Everything." She said.

"This entire situation all started innocently enough. It was around stardate 57497.1, a few days after we left the Shinjitsu nebula. I was in my quarters when the red alert klaxon made itself known. I rushed to the bridge and as soon as I got there, a giant wormhole was on the screen."

"A Borg transwarp conduit was on the screen and tearing through the fabric of space. Forty Borg cubes came through the conduit. We all held our breath as the cubes emerged." Sparhawk said.

"One cube came up to us and hailed us. The Borg Queen appeared on the screen telling us that they no longer wished to assimilate us but now wished to destroy us. The cubes separated into different directions all going to destroy the Federation. They made quick work of Starbase one two nine."

"Our Allensworth was on his feet shouting orders to retaliate. We quickly responded with a barrage of phasers and torpedoes. Naturally, they adapted quickly. They even adapted to the transphasic torpedo. We didn't even have time to send a team over to inject them with the Endgame virus. More Federation ships joined us and that's when things turned ugly. Voyager showed up first, then the Seattle, the Thunderchild, and the Budapest. All of them were destroyed."

"Then I got a reports from all over the Federation. Bajor, Vulcan, Betazed, Andor…Earth all destroyed." Hoshi said.

"We took heavy damage during the battle and were on the verge of a warp core breach. Then the shields dropped and the Borg beamed aboard and began attacking. There were barrages of phaser fire. The Borg were relentless in their attacks."

"A drone appeared in front of me and went in for the kill but Dustin stepped up and took the blow for me. He told me to get off the bridge. He showed me that his phaser was set to overload. Before the turbolift doors closed I saw that he held onto the drone with his last bit of strength. I was a few decks down when I heard the explosion. I made it to Deck Sixteen and then I blacked out."

"Shortly after, the assault on the bridge, I made off the bridge. Everyone was dead and next thing I know I'm on Deck Sixteen and I run into you guys."

"I wonder what happened." Allensworth said.

"I happened." A voice said behind them.

They all turned around and saw a young blond female standing there in a Starfleet uniform. They had no idea who she was. Then in a sudden flash of light, another person in a Starfleet uniform appeared.

"Now, what did I say about taking the blame for things, Amanda?" The being said to the blond.

Allensworth immediately recognized the being. "Q."


	7. Taking Responsibility

"What are you doing here, Q?" Allensworth demanded.

"I'm just merely looking after my apprentice. She still has a lot to learn about being a Q."

"Wait, I remember you." Plumley said walking up to the blond. "You were a medical intern on the Enterprise during my final year there. You're Amanda Rogers."

"Amanda Rogers?" Allensworth asked.

"She was an intern on the Enterprise-D and it later turned out that she was a Q."

Q folded his hands and had a very bored expression on his face. "Yes, yes, Amanda here has quite a fascinating story but…"

Allensworth cut him off. "What did you mean that you happened?"

"You cut me off." Q said.

"You'll survive." Allensworth shot back.

"Well, the typical Q doesn't really care about other races because of their omnipotence."

"Typical Q?" Q asked. "I resent that remark."

"I saw this catastrophe and because I grew up with a human lifestyle, and I felt like I could allow the human race to be wiped out by the Borg. I wanted to help but I wasn't sure what to do because I didn't want to affect the universe too much. Billions of people had just been killed and more were going to follow. So I decided to alter the timeline."

"Yes, it's a very touching story." Q said.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for your intervention but I'm not sure I understand why you did it. Time isn't really a toy to play around with. You can't go tinkering with it whenever you don't like the way things are going. There are laws in this universe that we can't ignore it simply because it has become inconvenient." Allensworth said.

Amanda lowered her head as if she was getting a lecture from her parents. She knew that her parents would lecture her on this matter if they weren't killed by a Q made tornado in Kansas.

"When I was on the Enterprise, two of its crewmembers were stuck on a planet because a reactor was about to go critical and they couldn't get a transporter lock to beam them out. I had a choice whether to remain a human and let them die or save them and stay a Q. Will and Geordi are alive because I chose to leave my human life behind and become a Q. This was another one of those times. What would you have done in my shoes?"

Allensworth didn't even pretend to consider the question. He knew the rules and regulations but Amanda wasn't a Starfleet officer even though she wore a uniform like one. He knew what his heart was saying. "I would've done the same thing."

"It took me forever for me to get Picard to admit something like that but as soon as she gets here, she gets you to admit that. They grow up so fast. It hits you right here, doesn't it." Q said acting like he was wiping a tear from his eye.

Suddenly, the red alert klaxon sounded. The crisis wasn't over yet.

A haunting silence filled the darkened bridge, broken only by intermittent bleeps of the computer. As he walked to the command chair, Allensworth couldn't help but notice the slight chill running down his spine. His mind kept racing back to the alternate Alexandria and its dreadful demise. Allensworth knew that if things went badly now, they could suffer the same fate all over again.

"We have reached the threshold of the debris field." Perim said, her voice filled with apprehension.

"The Defiant, Okinawa, Prometheus and Finland in range." Perim added.

A smile slightly cracked Allensworth's stoic face. The Borg was one of the most lethal forces in the known universe and Starfleet sent four ships.

"How many cubes in the debris field?"

"Six. Four of them are on an intercept course."

Allensworth sighed. They had issues with one cube but there were six of them. Five starships were definitely not enough against them. The captain hoped that there were more on their way just not within sensor range.

In a flash of light, the two Q appeared.

"What will you do, Captain?" Q asked.

"He will do nothing." Amanda said. "I started this and I will end this."

With a quick motion of her hands, the cubes disappeared, the debris field disappeared even the distortion disappeared."

Allensworth looked around and all he saw was the tensed looks of the bridge crew.

"Stand down from red alert." He said returning to his command chair.

"I apologize for my actions that put your crew in danger."

"How many times do I have to tell you? You're a Q you don't have to apologize." Q said.

"Yes, I do."

"Whatever. Kids." Q said before disappearing in a flash of light.

"Again, I'm sorry." Amanda said before waving her hands to disappear in a flash of light.

_Captain's Log: Stardate: 58152.8: We've returned to Earth after it had been attacked by the Terran Empire. Starfleet may start taking the fight to them now. A few of us have a some things to take care of during our downtime._

Captain Jermaine Allensworth stood at the edge of a giant crater that went beyond the eyes can see. It was what was left of the southeastern seaboard of the North American continent. He couldn't believe it. His family was gone with the exception of his father.

He heard footsteps behind him. He turned around to see his father walking up to him. Without saying a word. Jermaine walked up to him and hugged his father tightly. Nothing was needed to be said between the two.

Aboard the Alexandria, Counselor Christine Nycz stood in front of Commander Alex Merriell's quarters. She waited a few seconds and took a few deep breaths before pressing the chime on the wall panel. She heard his voice telling her to come in. She took a step forward to allow the sensor to acknowledge her and allow the doors to open.

Alex was a bit surprised by her appearance. "Counselor? What can I do for you?"

"Do you mind if I sit down?"

"No, go ahead." Alex said scooting over to give Christine some room to sit. The counselor sat down and took a few more breaths. Alex could tell that something was bothering her. "What is it, Counselor?"

"Alex, we need to talk." She said.

The End.


End file.
